Putin Will Make Rare Trip to Saudi Arabia/UAE and Then Host Iranian President in Moscow

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – In an apparent effort to shore up support in the Middle East, Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to make a rare one-day trip to both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and to host Iran’s president in Moscow this week, the Times of Israel (TOI) reports.

Putin will fly out to meet with Saudi and Emirati leaders on Wednesday and return to meet Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in the Kremlin on Thursday, TOI reports.

In a statement Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin’s talks with leaders of the three countries will focus on bilateral relations, the war between Israel and Hamas, and international issues, including oil price caps under OPEC+, TOI reports.

The meetings come even as Putin continues to be the subject of an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court in March for war crimes: the Russian leader is accused of “unlawful deportation” of children from parts of occupied Ukraine to Russia, TOI reports.

While Putin remains free to wage war on Ukraine among his other policies, the ICC arrest warrant has limited his movements to some extent: he was unable to attend the recent BRICS summit in South Africa because, as a signatory to the court’s founding treaty, the host country would have been obliged to arrest him. Neither Saudi Arabia nor the UAE are signatories to the treaty, so Putin is able to travel there, TOI said.

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